- Drivers suffer from poor conditions and risk becoming victims of crime
- Job’s lack of appeal partially behind driver shortage in the EU
- EU funding should be used to improve truck parks
- Technical solutions for reporting could help boost crime-fighting
Fighting crime more effectively and increasing funding would make truck parks in the EU safer and help respond to driver shortages, say Petitions Committee MEPs.
In a resolution on the safety of truck parks in the EU, adopted with 31 in favour and 1 against, the Petitions Committee asks for more co-ordination among member states to tackle criminality against drivers and their cargo, and for increased funding to improve facilities.
MEPs consider the safety situation of truck parks in the EU alarming and their capacity insufficient, especially given that the EU industry is suffering from an acute driver shortage. Because crimes against drivers and their cargo are increasingly organized and cross-border in nature, law enforcement in EU member states needs to coordinate across borders, and systematically report crimes to Europol to allow it to support member states, argue the MEPs.
The text demands funding to create more parking lot capacity and improve the already existing facilities. It asks the Commission to mobilize funding from European Structural and Investment Funds and the Connecting Europe Facility, and consider revisions to the EU’s regulation on developing its cross-border transport network, TEN-T. In addition to upgrading truck park infrastructure, the EU should also introduce call systems for drivers to report crime to authorities without linguistic barriers, and set up tools allowing them to find and book secure parking areas.
MEPs of the Petitions Committee will travel to the Hauts-de-France region for a fact-finding mission to assess the safety of truck parks. The trip is provisionally scheduled for May 2022.
Background
According to Europol’s 2021 Serious and Organized Crime Report, cargo crime impacting freight during transport or storage caused losses of € 75 million in 2019. The Petitions Committee has received a petition raising serious concerns on the safety of truck parking facilities in Europe, which garnered over 22 000 signatures.
Further information
- Draft text of the resolution
- Petitions Committee discussion on the safety of truck parking lots (14.07.)
- Committee on Petitions